


Shattered

by harmonicsynth



Category: One Piece
Genre: "persuading" the prisoner, Angst, CP9 cares about each other, CP9-friendly, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, OC-centric, Other, adding tags as I go, and Sanji's trying to help, apologies for the formatting, bc they still hurt my boi, because you can't convince me they don't, but it's grown and now i've got a whole fic on my hands, but not too friendly, he's got more issues now, so please don't murder me, this is my first posted fic, this was supposed to be just a small thing, writing this as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:10:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26340124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmonicsynth/pseuds/harmonicsynth
Summary: After a mission gone wrong, Kalifa brings back a spy from the island she and Jabra had been scouting.  Spandam wants intel, and after hearing that this man killed Jabra, CP9 eagerly complies.  The Straw Hats find a broken soul in that tower, and Sanji does his best to pick up the pieces.
Relationships: I didn't plan it but the ship just kept sailing at me, Kaku/Rob Lucci, Roronoa Zoro & Vinsmoke Sanji, Vinsmoke Sanji & Original Character(s), possible Vinsmoke Sanji/Original character
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Shattered

**Author's Note:**

> So just as a little extra warning (if my tags were too vague....sorry ;w;) there is torture in this fic. It doesn't go into a lot of the details, but it will occasionally describe the physical effects/results of what happened. So just....viewer discretion, honestly. If that sort of thing isn't for you, you should probably find something different ;w;

"He's all yours."  
When Lucci heard those words, he wasn't sure what to think. Did his Chief _really_ trust him to restrain himself, or was he really that idiotic? Any sane person would know giving him free reign to harm the man that killed a close friend of his could never end well, though Spandam seemed completely unaware of this fact. Though going by the unease in their prisoner's eyes, the man knew exactly how precarious his situation had gotten.  
Lucci looked back at the prisoner, meeting his amber eyes with his steely gray ones. It was hard to see the man's expression through the thick, opaque muzzle covering most of his face, but from the fire in his eyes, he was probably baring those venom-stained fangs at Lucci again.  
Not that Lucci had anything to fear from his venom, anyway. They both knew it was futile for him to try, since the antivenom was well within reach. So Lucci had no issue reaching forward and pulling the muzzle off, dropping it to the tiled floor beside the chair the man was bound to.  
He didn't flinch at the furious snarl aimed his way, just grabbed the man's chin roughly and snarled right back.  
"You can't kill me." It was a simple statement, without hesitation. Lucci schools his expression, reining in the desire to snap the bastard's neck here and now.  
Because he was right.  
No matter how much Lucci hated him, no matter how much he wanted to watch the life drain from this friend-killer's eyes, he couldn't let himself kill the man. The Chief would be angry, sure, but so would the higher-ranking Marines, ones Lucci would rather not anger. He's not the only one they'd come down on, and he doesn't want to risk losing another friend. And if they took Kaku.....he pushes the thought away. He won't let that happen. Though it irks him that this man is being kept alive for the same venom that ended Jabra's life. It's like Fate is playing with him, dangling the thing he desires right in front of him, but just barely out of reach.  
He feels the man's head shift as he swallows, and focuses back on him. He looks unnerved, though with Lucci lost in thought for so long- after being given clearance to "persuade" him to give them information- it's not unexpected. Lucci lets a predatory smirk slide onto his face and feels the man shiver.  
He starts simple. "What are Albon's numbers?"  
...Nothing. The man just keeps his eyes on Lucci's, jaw set and shoulders tense.  
Lucci shrugs indifferently. "Have it your way."  
And so it begun.  
~~~~  
Lucci could tell he wanted to scream. He could see it in his eyes, and feel it trembling through his bleeding body at each dragging of Lucci's claws through his flesh. But the spy still refused, eyes firmly fixed on Lucci's, jaw clenched against the pain. His breathing was rough and shaky, the only sound the leopard Zoan heard from him. It irked him. Lucci wanted him to scream. He wanted to hear his agony, make him _beg_ for mercy. Mercy that he didn't give Jabra. Mercy this friend-killing bastard didn't deserve. But he still refused.  
Lucci meets his eyes, and he feels him shudder from the clear intent in his eyes. He may be silent now, but soon Lucci will find a way. He may not be able to end this bastard's life, but he can make the last days, weeks, or however long Spandam wants to use him full of as much pain as he can inflict.  
He pulls his claws away from his bloodied torso, asking in a flat, business-like tone, "What are Albon's weaknesses?"  
Unsurprisingly, he gets no answer.  
So with barely-restrained control, he begins again.  
~~~~  
....He's not satisfied.  
Lucci looks at his hands, palms and fingers stained red with the blood of the man that took Jabra from them, and scowls.  
A part of him- a very small part- tells him this is good. He didn't go too far, and he'll get another chance to make the spy suffer. Chief isn't pleased at the lack of information, but was sated with a few words assuring him that just one session wouldn't break the strong-willed Commander.  
The other?  
It wants to feel that bastard's blood soaking up to his elbows, see it pooling under that chair, see the dull, lifeless eyes of the man that took his friend. But for now, he has to contain it. Despite how much he wants to tear that bastard apart, he has to control himself. Has to hurt him enough to batter his spirit, but not enough to threaten his life.  
Lucci nearly breaks the sink as he grips it, shoulders shaking with his barely-controlled rage. Red-stained water drips from his fingers, sliding in little rivulets down the sides of the pale sink.  
Then a warm hand settles on his back, and like a wave, his shoulders relax and his knuckles lose their pale pallor, the sink creaking in relief.  
"I want to kill him just as much as you, honeybunch," he hears Kaku say. He feels his husband's hand smoothing gentle circles on his back, his warmth soothing the anger boiling in his chest.  
"...It's unfair, Kaku. If I wasn't allowed to touch him, it wouldn't be so bad, but..."  
"I know." Kaku leans against him, looping his long arms around Lucci's waist and gently scrubbing the blood off in the still-running sink water.  
Lucci sighs quietly. "...I just want him back."  
Kaku pauses in his washing of Lucci's hands for a moment. "...Me too..."  
There's a moment of silence, broken only by the running of the sink, before Kaku continues, "He was annoying."  
Lucci nods. "And loud."  
"And he called me a horse. I'm....I-I'm a giraffe." Kaku sniffles.  
Lucci swallows. "And I'm not hust some housecat, either..."  
"He was such a trouble-maker, too."  
Lucci swallows the lump in his throat. "Remember that time he dyed our suits?"  
Kaku chuckles, but it's a brittle sound. "Yours looked like a leopard's pelt..."  
"Yours had giraffe spots, right?"  
Kaku nods. "I...I still have that one."  
Lucci's voice is shaking ever so slightly. "In the box with mine....."  
"Yeah....the memorial's tomorrow..."  
Lucci looks over at him, meeting his eyes. "I'll wear mine."  
"He'd probably laugh his butt off if he saw us in it," Kaku says, a distant look in his eyes.  
Lucci nods. "...If wearing that could bring him back....I'd wear it every day."  
"I would give anything to hear his obnoxious laugh again," Kaku mutters.  
By now, the water's run clear again, though they don't move. As they stand together, they both feel like moving would break that brittle dam holding their emotions at bay. Kaku doesn't say anything about the wetness on Lucci's cheeks, nor does Lucci comment on the soaked arm of his suit. They just stand there, two brittle men held together by each other's presence.  
Two battered souls finding solace in each other's embrace.  
~~~~  
There was a plan this time.  
Lucci is in the room now, though from how quiet things are, it's hard to tell what's going on.  
Kaku swallows the lump in his throat, letting his head tilt back and rest against the wall. He's standing beside the door, arms crossed and trying to hold himself together.  
He hadn't seen the man that killed Jabra, and he knew better than to ask Lucci about him. Not that he cared, but....part of him was curious. Curious about this silent spy whose blood coated his beloved's hands every few days.  
Does he regret it?  
Does he feel any remorse for taking their friend?  
Or is he just staying quiet, satisfied knowing he caused them pain, knowing they can't kill him no matter how much they want to.....  
Kaku shakes his head, clearing away those thoughts. He can't let his anger through. Not now, especially. He's supposed to be the voice of reason, the one to hold the "feral" agent at bay, the one this spy....can....can trust. Gosh he hates the idea of gaining that man's trust, but it might be the only way to learn what he knows.  
He's been resisting Lucci's....persuasion...for almost two weeks now, and with only one more remaining before their mission in Water 7, they're running out of time to break him.  
So they hatched a plan.  
Lucci would let his anger come out more than usual, and Kaku would "rescue" the spy by "holding Lucci back". Though from the angry growls he can hear from inside, it may not be as much of an act as they would prefer. Sighing and schooling his features into that of what would be expected of him, he dashes into the room.  
The first thing he notices is that Lucci's arms are bloody, more so than usual. The second is the genuine fear in their prisoner's eyes, currently locked onto the leopard zoan. Kaku hides a satisfied smile. This should be easy.  
"Lucci, what are you _doing_?!"  
Lucci turns, noticing Kaku for the first time. In a rare- but genuine, despite the scripted lines- burst of anger, he snarls, "He killed Jabra! He deserves to _die_ , Kaku!!"  
"Lucci, we can't!" Kaku says, moving between him and the bewildered prisoner.  
"But-"  
"This isn't the way, Lucci. Please, just come outside and wash up, okay?"  
Lucci's jaw clenches, and for a moment Kaku worries that he'll veer off-script. He wouldn't blame him, but their plan hinges on Kaku getting him away from their prisoner.  
After a tense moment, he nods and sighs, shoulders lowering slightly. "Alright."  
Kaku sighs in relief and walks out of the room, a hand on Lucci's arm. Once they're out of sight, Lucci places his hand on top of Kaku's, muttering, "I'm sorry for worrying you."  
"It's alright, honeybunch," Kaku whispers. He pecks a kiss to Lucci's cheek, then heads back into the room, putting on a fake worried expression.  
The spy's watching him, a hint of wariness under the clear relief in his eyes.  
Kaku approaches, kneeling down and inspecting the damage. It's bad, but not fatal. He'd been told about the strange healing power this man had- he had assumed it was a Devil Fruit power at first, but apparently the man himself is a devil....makes sense, in his opinion- so he wasn't particularly worried that he'd succumb to the wounds.  
"...You....saved me."  
Kaku looks up at the man's face, meeting those amber eyes. He can see the wariness in them, but isn't surprised.  
"Well I couldn't just let you die," he says, testing the waters with his worried tone.  
The man's eyebrow twitches upwards a little. "I doubt you really care," he says flatly, coughing a little.  
Kaku smiles at him, but it doesn't reach his eyes. "True. The Chief would be mad if you died."  
The spy doesn't respond.  
Kaku looks back at the wounds, and touches one of the worse-looking ones. He hides a smirk at the spy's pained hiss. "If you'd cooperate, we won't have to keep doing this, you know."  
Silence.  
"Just tell me one thing. It doesn't have to be big, or any top-secret thing. Just...a little snippet. And I'll make this stop." Kaku purposely presses a little too hard on the spy's torso, getting a quiet snarl in return. He knows that once one thing is given, even a tiny, seemingly insignificant thing, the dam- for lack of a better term- is cracked. Soon he'll have this bastard singing like a canary with all of Albon's secrets.  
"I...." Kaku glances up as he hears the spy begin to speak. Here it is. Just like all the others, a little pain and a sliver of hope broke his silence. Kaku barely hides a bitter scowl. How could such a weak-minded bastard take out his friend? Just the thought of it makes his blood boil. The spy coughs, and Kaku patiently waits for whatever intel he's about to get.  
"I know what you're doing."  
.....That...wasn't what Kaku had expected. "What?"  
"I know what you're doing," he repeats.  
"...And what is that?"  
"You and I both know the second I give you anything, it's just the beginning. I refuse to let myself go down that path."  
Kaku frowns, then chuckles humorlessly. "We'll break you. You do know that, right?"  
His eyes widen a fraction as the spy actually _laughs_ at that. It's a bitter, shaky laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.  
"What's so funny?"  
The spy looks at him, an unreadable expression on his face, before smiling. It doesn't come close to reaching his eyes. As he begins to speak, Kaku realizes what he's seeing. "You can't break a man that already broken."  
Kaku raises an eyebrow.  
"I know I'm not getting out of here," he elaborates. "I'll never see my family or my home again. I doubt I'll see the light of day one more time before I die. I'll die strapped to this chair."  
"...Do you have a point here?" Kaku asks flatly.  
The spy's eyes harden with determination, a fire lighting in them. "I may stay in this chair till I _rot_ , or you or one of yours might finally put me out of my misery, but **I will _not_ die a traitor to my country**."  
Kaku sighs and stands. "Have it your way." He turns his back on the man and leaves, slamming the door behind him and leaving him in darkness.  
~~~~  
They weren't sure if he was alive when they found him.  
Sanji and Usopp had been running through the Tower of Law, desperately searching for their friend, when they found the infirmary.  
It was clean, like any good infirmary should be, but empty. Not a single sign of Robin anywhere.  
Sanji growls under his breath, jaw clenching and nearly biting his cigarette in two. "Dammit....where _is_ she?!"  
Usopp frowns, peeking into the curtained areas of the infirmary, hoping he'd find her alive and well in one of them. No luck. "I...I don't kn-.....Sanji!"  
Sanji follows the arm Usopp's pointing, spotting a door near the back of the room, hidden by a few heart monitor stands and other medical equipment. Without hesitating, he pushes all of it aside, ignoring the racket as a few of them topple.  
Usopp runs over to him, looking at the thick lock on the door. A round from his slingshot later, it's lying busted on the ground. Sanji throws the door open, bursting into the room. "ROBI-....oh... **oh god**...."  
Usopp enters the room as Sanji's cigarette hits the floor.  
If not for the steady- if unhealthily slow- beating of the heart monitor, he'd think the man was dead. He looked nearly there, with his pale, clammy skin and ribs easily visible on his chest. Usopp swallows as he sees the scars covering his torso. They look like claws had been raked through the man's skin, and there's a few circular scars over non-vital areas, likely from a Shigan.  
Sanji takes an uneasy step towards the man, who hasn't stirred once since their arrival. He looks torn between rage and shock, eyes locked onto the small figure strapped into the chair before him.  
The man doesn't react as they begin to undo the restraints, nor when Sanji pulls the needles from his neck. He doesn't do more than stare dully at the floor, matted dark hair hanging limply over his face.  
Sanji tries to ignore how light he is. Tries to ignore how bony the man feels in his arms, like a living skeleton. He tries to ignore the faint trembling he can feel, the only sign of life from this poor soul.  
His thoughts wander as they run to their ship. Just what had happened to this man? Who is he, and why is he here? ...How long was he here?  
Unsurprisingly, the man doesn't answer.  
~~~~  
It was almost a month later when the mystery man began to stir.  
Sanji had taken to visiting the med bay every morning, something in him just needing to know that the man survived the night. He'd stop by for meals, carefully feeding a thin broth to the man.  
Part of him was glad. Glad that the man lived on, and hoping that he'd recover.  
But....another part dreaded the day he woke up.  
Sanji remembers what he looked like when he and Usopp found him. How could he forget; the image is nearly branded into his mind's eye.  
He looks at the sleeping figure, noting the slightly healthier tint to his skin, how his breathing isn't as ominously shallow. Sees how his eyelids and fingers twitch, reacting to images only he can see.  
...He also knows how the man would unconsciously struggle if Chopper tried to put gentle restraints on his wrists or ankles. How even touching one of the places those cursed bindings had been would make him tremble. It was a battle just keeping a blanket over him some days, a primal instinct to be _free_ causing his unconscious body to throw it off.  
Sanji fears how damaged this poor soul's mind will be when he wakes up..... _if_ he wakes up. Whatever happened in that tower _shattered_ him, as far as Sanji can tell.  
So when he sees those eyelids flutter open one afternoon, he can't help the heavy dread in his gut.  
The man doesn't do much more than stare blurrily at the ceiling for a few moments, a confused furrow to his brow. Sanji stands in the doorway, frozen by the sight. All these weeks of silence and stillness were hard to swallow, but the sight of this man _awake_ and _moving_ \- if only a little- makes this so much more real for him.  
Steeling himself, he walks towards the bed.  
Amber eyes watch him as he moves closer, a quiet question in those eyes making Sanji's heart hurt. He wouldn't be surprised to find out that this man had given up on freedom long ago.  
"Wh-" The man coughs, his voice rough from not speaking for who knows how long.  
"Shhh...you need to eat. We can talk when you have some food in your belly," Sanji says gently, reaching to lift the man's head up, as he had done many times before.  
He doesn't expect the full-body flinch away from him, or the fear in those amber eyes, though he mentally chides himself for not being more careful with such a fragile soul.  
It seems the man didn't expect it either, shaking slightly as he looks at Sanji's hand, then at his own body, the confusion clear in his eyes.  
Sanji pushes his anger away, knowing it'd just scare him. Once he's calm again, he gently says, "I'm not going to hurt you...I just want to help, okay?"  
The man watches him for a moment, then nods. "O-okay..."  
Sanji gently slips his hand under the man's head, lifting it and putting the bowl of broth to his lips. He tries to ignore the trembling he can feel beneath his fingers, or how the man's hands shake slightly, clearly fighting the instinct to push Sanji's hands away.  
Sanji only gets about halfway through the bowl before it becomes too much for the man, and he pulls away, shaking.  
"Wh-what's wrong with me...?" Sanji's heart aches at the man's shaky voice, and can barely meet his pleading amber eyes.  
"It's alright to be scared," he says quietly. "After what you went through...."  
The man looks confused at this, and Sanji feels the dread in his gut coiling tighter.  
He swallows the lump building in his throat. "...Enough about that. You're safe now." He takes a breath, hoping that his hunch is wrong and dreading the answer, and says, "My name's Sanji. What's yours?"  
There's a pause.  
"I....."  
Sanji doesn't even realize he's holding his breath, waiting for the answer, that cold dread winding tighter and tighter as the pause lengthens.  
"I don't know."


End file.
